Panels of Awesome!

As many of you out there who’ve been either reading this site on a regular basis or stalking me in your free time know, I’ve never been the biggest X-Men fanatic. Sure, they’re always been somewhat appealing to me but, for whatever reason, I never really got into any of the X-titles until fairly recently with Warren Ellis’ Astonishing X-Men. My theory is that with so many characters making up the X-Men world, I’d feel somewhat lost and unable to really follow all the past stories and relationships between the heroes that make up the team’s roster.

Well, enough is enough. I think my life could use a little more X-Men so I’ll be jumping on board with Uncanny X-Men #500.

There’s a number of reasons that this makes sense to me.

• Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are writing it

This pretty much goes without saying. Ed Brubaker, currently writing one of the biggest stories in Captain America history, brings his talents to the pages of X-Men. Sounds pretty good to me. As for Fraction, his work on Invincible Iron Man is proof enough for me that the guy knows what he’s doing. Keep in mind that both of them will be writing this book. Both.

• Terry Dodson and Greg Land are drawing it

Like I said in my reviews of Young X-Men, Dodson’s art has a very powerful hold that almost always causes me to blindly buy anything and everything with his name on it. Weather it’s a cover or full artwork for a comic, Dodson sells comics to me and Uncanny X-Men, as well as any future issues he works on, are no exception to that rule. As for Greg Land, his work on the Free Comic Book Day issue of X-Men was pretty impressive so this appears to be a win-win situation to me.

• Wolverine’s in it

Like several other dozen books currently running at Marvel, Wolverine will probably play a pretty big part in whatever zany adventures the X-Men find themselves in. Although, to be honest, as long as Wolverine is shredding things up, getting blown up in explosions or beating the crap out of people out of people, I’m happy as can be.

• Magneto and the Sentinels are back

Just like the good old days, Magneto and the Sentinels are back in the X-Men’s lives to ruin whatever plans they might have and that’s always entertaining to read about.

Not to mention, Emma’s pretty hot.

Check out Marvel.com for the whole scoop on Uncanny X-Men #500 or, if you’re wanting to wait and check it out with your own eyes, grab a copy of the issue when it hits store shelves next week.